A couple of weeks ago, my very good friend gave me his well-used iPhone 3G. You probably know that Apple had to obsolete this ancient 3 year-old smart-phone as part of their brilliant business plan - avoid bankruptcy each year by giving us the privilege of buying the latest version of the same phone. Apple's woes aside, my friend's generous gift was a major step-up from my Luddite existence involving two tin cans and some string.
So, for the past few weeks, I have played with my new digital toy and have turned it into a somewhat effective personal assistant. I don't know how I've survived before receiving my sleek, scuffed iPhone. Yet, somehow I did.
For example, my grocery shopping trips used to be frighteningly similar to a confused mouse frantically looking for cheese in a very complex maze. Or whatever inconvenient aisles the evil grocer would use to hide my precious supplies. Eventually, after several mind-numbing hours, I would find my stashes of cheese and other necessities. Thankfully, I could then recover as I stood for hours in those ever-pleasant long lines of the checkout counter.
That was then. Now, my shopping experience is completely different. With the help of my trusty PDA, I can zip through the store with the speed and accuracy of a laser-guided missile. Where's the coffee? BAM! There it is! And BAM! Right into my shopping basket it goes. Immediately, my hound-dog of a phone points to my next unsuspecting target. Where's the soup? BAM! There it is! And BAM! Right into my shopping basket the cans roll! Where's the carton of eggs? BAM! There it is! And BAM! Right on to the floor the eggs splatter! (I've got to work on my overly enthusiastic aim.)
As you can imagine, my smart-phone has effectively shortened the time spent hunting for groceries. I can now get to those long, snail-paced lines at the checkout counter much, much sooner. But, while waiting in those DMV-styled people queues, I've figured out how to safely ignore the unmoving throng of decaying fellow shoppers surrounding me. I simply tune out by catching up on books and podcasts installed on my very smart phone. (Or maybe the smart one is just me. Modesty prevents me from saying, so chime in please).
Of course, it's not all fun-and-games. I am without At&T or Verizon's phone service. The good news is that I've figured out how to make free calls to any phone as long as I have a WiFi connection. The bad news is that this level of 'free' has its own set of frustrations. In fact, the more I use my obsolete device, the more I hit other walls of limitations. And each time this happens, I'm tempted more strongly to upgrade from free and into tomorrow's costly technology. (I'm sure that the more frugal among you will agree with me: if it is priced more than a dollar, it's costly.)
It doesn't help watching my engineering and geek friends gleefully play with their Android-based goodies. And now that I have a taste of what-could-be, I wonder about what an htc buy would bring to my next level of mobile experimentation.
Is it possible that the cell phone gods will smile upon me again? Perhaps an unwanted htc jetstream will fall from the heavens and smite my well-deserving noggin? ... hint, hint ... Or maybe this is all just a precursor to Apple's next competing product – the iWish.
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